Monday, 21 December 2009

So I'm three days late on this, which in blogging time to real world time is about a month, but I've been busy and I only need half an excuse to post something Late of the Pier related so shut up and watch it, alright?

For new single Blueberry, it sounds like Sam Eastgate holed himself up in the studio with Revolver and the Berlin Trilogy and set about creating a homage that sits midway between the two before typically climaxing in a trademark crescendo of darkness and distortion.

With Erol Alkan on production duties once again, it's also being released through his label Phantasy Sound. Only available digitally for the moment, it will soon be released on limited 12' along with B-side Best In Class in the new year.

Thursday, 17 December 2009

After being blogged back in March and receiving love from Steve Lamacq on Radio 1 and Tom Robinson at 6music, unsigned UK Hip Hop duo Surreal finally got around to self releasing their debut single Distance on Monday.

The paranoid lyrical delivery of Allen, interwoven between Rowkins' schizophrenic distorted basslines and melancholic guitar work, encapsulates their musical mantra of "all is not as it seems upon first glance" perfectly.

Head over to their Myspace or their Soundcloud to listen for yourself and you can purchase the single from Amazon here if you like what you hear.

Friday, 11 December 2009

It's pretty obvious to the regular reader that one of my favourite Hype's of the year has to be Wolf Gang. Since coming across them in February and catching one of their earliest shows at The Great Escape, I've seen them develop over the latter half of the year to become one of my tips for mainstream stardom in 2010.

You've watched the video for their second limited single through Hit Club and now it's time to unleash the grandiose classical-meets-dubstep hybrid mastery of Kid Adrift, with a remix that simply destroys every other The King And All Of His Men remix I've heard previously.

Monday, 7 December 2009

You know when you wake up at 3:00am, and you don't know which weighs the more; the dark of the night or the dark of your mind? And your only hope for peace is dawn? And then the feeling when that first crack of light appears through the blind, and suddenly you're calmness incarnate?

That's {Psychologist}: a London-based art graduate who just happens to be producing some of the finest Hour of The Wolf music around right now. Channelling Massive Attack and early Portishead through Burial, {Psychologist} - a.k.a. Iain Woods - sings of "heartbreak and loss, but always with a strand of hope..." in a voice so fragile you almost fear for his life.

When Particles Collide is one young man's lament about death and the philosophical idea of eternal return, and is just about one of the best things I've heard in a long while. Initially skeletal and bare, the sparse beat and melancholy keys eventually crack, giving way to a chorus so warm and soothing it drags you up by the lapels and let's you soar - it's the sound of something breaking, and of healing. All underpinned with a gloriously wobbly bass line... "The soundtrack to the soul leaving the body once and for all" is how Iain himself describes it - I guess soul music is perhaps the only fitting description; spilling over from one, soaked up by another.

I hear the live show is like a rave cabaret, with original tracks remixed with loads of 'old and weird vinyl'. Add to that a scratch DJ and two violinists, and you have a show I'd say you'd do well to get involved with...

You can peep {Psychologist} on the 14th of January at Brixton Windmill, and at Barden's Boudoir on the 11th of February, with more shows to be announced soon.